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Bhinna Aṣṭakavarga

Bhinna Aṣṭakavarga counts eight contributors' bindus across twelve signs, giving each sign zero to eight points per table. Mạghā calculates tables for the seven classical planets and Ascendant. Each table retains its fixed total across charts.

The Sun’s 48 bindus

Eight contributors allocate 48 bindus across the Sun’s table. Each contributor has a prescribed set of favourable houses; add their marks sign by sign. Nila’s Pisces receives all eight, while Scorpio and Capricorn receive two.

Parāśara's rules for the Sun show how a table fills. The Sun gets a bindu in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th houses from itself, from Mars and from Saturn; in the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th from the Moon; in the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th from Mercury; in the 5th, 6th, 9th and 11th from Jupiter; in the 6th, 7th and 12th from Venus; and in the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th from the ascendant.

Nila's Sun table reads 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 2, 4, 2, 4 and 8 from Aries to Pisces. All eight contributors mark Pisces, while Scorpio and Capricorn get 2 each. Virgo, where her Sun stands, has 5.

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A planet's own table judges its birth sign and its transits

A planet's own table is read first at the sign the planet occupies. C. S. Patel and C. A. Subramania Aiyar treat 5 or more bindus as favourable, 4 as mixed and 3 or fewer as weak, even for an exalted planet. Varāhamihira reaches the same middle by letting favourable and unfavourable places cancel, so 4 out of 8 leaves nothing either way.

Transits use the same table. Mantreśvara counts a planet passing a sign with five or more of its own bindus as a good passage, and four or fewer as a troubled one. Parāśara also gives the tables their subjects, counted from the planet in its own table: the 9th from the Sun for the father, the 4th from the Moon for the mother, the 5th from Jupiter for children and the 8th from Saturn for longevity.

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The Aṣṭakavarga tab shows eight rows across twelve signs

Aṣṭakavarga shows Sun–Saturn, Ascendant and combined SAV rows across twelve signs. Switch to houses counted from the Lagna, or chart drawings. Individual totals appear in the Prastāra Table. Praśna charts offer the same view.

Mạghā follows Parāśara where authorities differ: the Moon table includes the ninth from Moon and second from Jupiter; Venus includes the fourth from Mars. Varāhamihira or Mantreśvara implementations may therefore show different Moon and Venus counts.

Bindus in each planet’s birth sign

0 bindus 8

SunVirgo
5 / 8
MoonCapricorn
4 / 8
MarsCancer
4 / 8
MercuryLibra
6 / 8
JupiterLibra
5 / 8
VenusLibra
4 / 8
SaturnAquarius
1 / 8
AscendantLibra
4 / 8

The ivory tick marks the midpoint, 4 of 8 bindus.

Nila's Mercury holds 6 bindus in its birth sign and Saturn 1

Reading each planet in its own table at its birth sign gives a quick profile of Nila's chart. Mercury in Libra has 6 bindus, the Sun in Virgo and Jupiter in Libra have 5 each, and the Moon in Capricorn, Mars in Cancer and Venus in Libra have 4 each. Saturn in Aquarius has only 1. The Ascendant's own table gives Libra 4.

By Patel and Aiyar's lines, Mercury, the Sun and Jupiter are well supported, three planets sit on the mixed 4, and Saturn counts as weak, although Aquarius is one of the two signs Saturn rules.

What people ask about Bhinna Aṣṭakavarga

What is a good Bhinnāṣṭakavarga score?

Each sign holds 0 to 8 bindus in a planet's table, so 4 is the midpoint. Varāhamihira treats it as neutral, because favourable and unfavourable places cancel. C. S. Patel and C. A. Subramania Aiyar call 5 or more favourable, 4 mixed and 3 or fewer weak, even for an exalted planet. Other teachers draw the lines slightly differently.

Why do the planets' totals never change?

Each contributor marks a fixed number of houses for each planet: eight for the Sun from the Sun itself, four from the Moon, and so on. Every house falls in some sign, so from chart to chart the bindus only move between signs. Jupiter always has the most, 56, and Mars and Saturn the fewest, 39 each; the seven planets together have 337.

Is a bindu a favourable point or an unfavourable one?

It depends on the book. Parāśara marks favourable places with a line (rekhā) and unfavourable ones with a dot (bindu). Mantreśvara and other South Indian authors use the dot for the favourable place, and Mạghā follows them: every bindu in its tables marks a favourable place.

How is Saturn's Bhinnāṣṭakavarga used?

Parāśara judges longevity from the 8th house from Saturn in Saturn's table and reads Saturn's transits from it: Saturn passing a sign with more favourable marks in its own table gives good results, and one with more unfavourable marks the reverse. Saturn's table holds 39 bindus. In Nila's chart Pisces has the most, 6, and Capricorn and Aquarius the fewest, 1 each.